Let's Talk Hurricane Helene & Politics...

I had no intention of voicing my political opinions on here, let me get this straight. And I still intend on keeping many of my personal thoughts private, however, with the aftermath of the disastrous Hurricane Helene, I would like to take light of some things. I will be sharing some facts, and a few of my opinions, and you can do with this what you will.🤷‍♀️

AP Photo/Mike Stewart

As you have probably heard by now, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee suffered greatly after Helene. Many cities were completely wiped out. Lives were lost. People are missing. Water plants were destroyed, so there's no water anywhere. Some places are still without power. Cell towers were damaged. Small businesses: destroyed. Homes: destroyed. Cars: destroyed. The list keeps going. Many people were trapped in their homes with no food and water for days due to the horrendous mass flooding. The point is, it's bad, and I'm not taking this lightly. Parts of Georgia and Florida also suffered greatly from flooding and damage. So, basically all these communities who lost everything need a lot of money, right? Naturally, this seems like a job for our federal government, especially with it involving several states. Part of our country is going through a crisis, this is part of why we have a federal government, right? To step in and help with these natural disasters and to provide funding for these families in need, right? We can all agree on this, yes? Well, as you probably have heard lately, Vice President Kamala Harris announced $750 will be going towards hurricane relief funds. $750. Before I even say anything about that, let's take a look of where our money went these past few years, shall we?

2022: $70.4 billion in foreign aid

2023: Ukraine ($16.4 billion), Israel ($3.3 billion), Ethiopia ($1.95 billion), Jordan ($1.65 billion), Egypt ($1.43 billion), Afghanistan ($1.19 billion), Somalia ($1.13 billion), Yemen ($1.05 billion), Congo ($987 million), Syria ($896 million)

2024: A budget of $63.1 billion was set for foreign aid. Many billions of dollars have gone to Ukraine this year among other countries, and Kamala Harris just promised $157 million to Lebanon today (10/6). And while this has not been exactly confirmed yet, some sources say over $650 million has been spent on migrants.

Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images

And when our own country needs help, our very own government is off sending millions and billions of dollars to foreign countries. Now, I have no problem with the US sending money to some countries in need, like Ukraine. However, I do believe we should prioritize our OWN country before others. We should be taking care of ourselves first, and then if we have some money left over, we can send it over. But, $750 is the best they can do for the victims of this tragic hurricane??? That'll get a family groceries for less than a month with the prices nowadays. Our very own President Biden was on vacation during the hurricane, and Kamala was having pics taken of her on a plane "writing" on a blank sheet of paper with headphones on. If this is how our federal government handles disaster relief, then that's scary. Federal government, please do better for the sake of your country.

AP News

I urge you, if you are of voting age, to please take this into account when voting for our next president. Neither candidates are perfect, don't get me wrong. It is honestly a rare blessing that we have gotten to see both candidates actually in office so we can gage how they would be as a president. Unfortunately, we deal with many natural disasters a year like hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, etc., along along with other tragedies like school shootings and terrorist attacks. We need a president who does not take these things lightly and quite literally puts their life on the line for us. I urge you to please vote because your voice matters. Every vote matters. Stay true to your personal beliefs and values, and do your own research on performance rates of the two candidates. Like I said earlier, we have gotten to actually see them both in office, so we can see these things. Research them, like did they do their job? Did they do what they said they were going to do? Did things ultimately get better when they were in office, for example, inflation wise? These are important questions to look into, and while you may not like either candidate as a person, sometimes we have to set that aside, and look deep into their policies and values.

Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images

Like I said earlier, I did not plan on discussing politics in my blog, and this probably won't be a regular thing. I know politics can be a dicey topic of conversation since so many people have very different views from one another. However, I hope we can all agree on issues like these. The fact is, our President and Vice President (who is also running for President) have not handled this natural disaster well. If they focused on their own country over others for a minute, things would look a lot different. Now, I don't know everything. I don't know how the FEMA funding works, and I don't know the truth of the claims that are being said, however, something is clearly not right. More money should be donated to hurricane disaster relief period. We also have another major hurricane on the way that will likely cause much more damage. The federal government needs to take care of their own country because that is their job.

Thank you for reading, and I hope I didn't scare you off! Not all of my blogs will be this serious, I promise. I just felt like this one needed to be heard. Make sure to subscribe if you liked it & my DMs are open on my Instagram @julespace05 if you ever wanna chat about anything or have some ideas for me for blog content! I'll see ya next time!